Press Release-IV-11-015, NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Nebraska Public Power District on Cooper Nuclear Station

Press Release-IV-11-015: NRC to Hold Regulatory Conference with Nebraska Public Power District on Cooper Nuclear Station

ML111110598
Person / Time
Site:	Cooper
Issue date:	04/21/2011
From:	Office of Public Affairs Region IV
To:
Category:Press Release
References
Press Release-IV-11-015
Download: ML111110598 (2)

Text

NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Region IV 612 E. Lamar Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, TX 76011-4125 Telephone: (817) 860-8128 Site: http://www.nrc.gov Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov No. IV-11-015 April 21, 2011

Contact:

Victor Dricks: (817) 860-8128 E-Mail: OPA4.Resource@nrc.gov Lara Uselding: (817) 276-6519 NRC TO HOLD REGULATORY CONFERENCE WITH NEBRASKA PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT ON COOPER NUCLEAR STATION The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a regulatory conference with officials from the Nebraska Public Power District on April 27 to discuss issues related to the Cooper nuclear plant fire protection plan. The plant is located 23 miles south of Nebraska City, Neb.

The conference, which is open to public observation, will begin at 8 a.m. in NRCs Region IV office at 612 E. Lamar in Arlington, Texas. Conferees will discuss an apparent violation with a preliminary low to moderate safety significance associated with motor operated valves that may not have performed in some specific fire scenarios. Previously, the licensee received a finding related to this issue and failed to fully correct it.

NRC inspectors reported that the licensees back-up procedures to operate valves that are part of the emergency core cooling system (ECCS) may not prove effective in the event of a fire.

The ECCS is used to cool the reactor core in the event of a fire or accident. In response to the finding, the licensee took immediate steps to change procedures to operate the valves manually, if needed.

The NRC evaluates regulatory performance at commercial nuclear plants with a color coded process which classifies regulatory findings as either green, white, yellow or red, in increasing order of safety significance. The NRCs preliminary evaluation determined that the apparent violation was white, meaning it has low to moderate safety significance.

A phone bridge is available to members of the public by calling 1-800-952-9677 and asking to be transferred to the meeting. Members of the NRC staff will be available to answer questions from members of the public after the business portion of the meeting.

No decision on the final significance, the apparent violation or any contemplated enforcement action will be made during the conference. Those decisions will be made by NRC officials at a later time.

The NRC inspection report is available through the agencys electronic reading room at:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html and ML110760579. Help in accessing these documents is available from the NRC Public Document Room staff by calling 1-800-397-4209.

NRC news releases are available through a free list serve subscription at the following Web address:

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's website.